Pliers for handling wire clips.



No. 636,587. Patented Nov. 7, I899.

-' L. F. SYL'VESTEB.

PLIERS FOR HANDLING WIRE CLIPS. (Application filed Aug. 1a, 1899.)

(No Model.)

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LOUIS FERNANDO SYLVESTER, or wooNsooKE RHODE ISLAND, ASSIGNOR TO THE EASTERNEXPANDED METAL COMPANY, or BOSTON, MASSA- CHUSETTS.

PLIERS FOR HANDLING WIRE CLIPS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 636,587, datedNovember 7, 1899.

Application filed August 18, 1 899.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, LOUIS FERNANDO SYL- VESTER, a citizen of theUnited States of America, and a resident of Woonsocket, county of Providence, and State of Rhode Island, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pliers for Handling Wire Clips, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the art of constructing metal-lath partitions and ceilings; and its object is to provide a tool for the handling of wire clips or fasteners which are used to secure the expanded metal or other metallic lath to the furring and which are the subjectmatter of another application to be filed concurrently herewith. Said clips are made of a single piece of resilient wire C-shaped, and each has a straight branch and a hooked branch substantially parallel or slightly converging. The straight branch is passed from the front of the partition through'a mesh of the expanded metal lath adjacent to the channel-iron furring and behind the furring,while the hooked branch remains on the front of the partition, the hook fitting closely over a portion of the lath and around the furring, the clip thus binding the'lath to the furring. The clip usually has to be handled from the front of the partition, and to place it in position a tool is required capable of grasping-and firmly holding the clip and at the same time so constructed as not to interfere with the lath or the furring while the clip is being placed in position. Heretofore such clips have been put in place by means of ordinary pliers having slender jaws, a clip being held by the hooked branch grasped longitudinally between the jaws. Ordinary pliers werefound ill adapted to the work, for the reason that when sufficient leverage was applied to overcome the resilience of the clip and to force it into position the jaws frequently slipped off from the clip. This difficulty is entirely overcome by the pliers invented by me and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a view of said pliers and the clip which they are designed to grasp. Fig. 2 is a cross-section of said pliers through the line of, viewed from the jaw end. Fig. 3 is a view fierial No. 727,689. (No model.)

of the gripping-surface of the long or finger jaw of said pliers in section through the line b d.

The pliers are composed of two pieces of metal, pivoted at a. A and 0 represent the handles, and D and B the thumb and finger graspingjaws, respectively, D, the thumbjaw,being shorter than B,the finger-jaw. The jaws do not close together, but in their closed position are separated ,by a space a little narrower than the C-shaped clip X, which they are designed to grasp. The broken line a 0 represents the center line of the handles and the broken line a b the center line of the jaws. The inner or gripping surfaces of the jaws are channeled, as shown in Fig. 2 at E and F, and the channels are transversely corrugated, as shown in Fig. 3. The channel in the fingerjaw D is straight and extends along the inner face of the jaw, thus affording a firm seat for the clip, which cannot be-easily dislodged.

The said pliers are used as follows: The workman places a clip X between said jaws, the hook of the hooked branch of said clip fitting into the channel E of jaw D and the back of the clip fitting into the channel F of the jaw B. The jaw B extends along the back of said clip. By pressure on the handle the clip is firmly held between the jaws, the corrugated channels preventing it from slipping out. The most natural position in which the workman may hold the pliers is with the center line of the handle substantially perpendicular to the partition; but in order to push the straight branch of the clip through a mesh and the hook of the hooked branch into engagement with the channel-iron the clip must be delivered to the partition at an angle. Consequently I setthe jaws at an angle with the center line of the handles. When the 9p hook is in engagement with the iron furring, as above described, and the straight branch of the clip is in position to be forced behind the channel-iron or equivalent furring, the operation is completed by simply swinging 5 the pliers on said hook as a pivot in the direction of the straight branch of the clips. The long jaw B serves to push the clip into its operative position, with its straight branch behind the furring, and supplies the leverage I00 sufficiently to overcome the tendency which the pliers have to slip and rotate upon the clip. The pressure on the handles may then be released and the pliers withdrawn.

Both jaws D and B are slender enough to pass through the meshes of the expanded metal, and the thumb-jaw D being short interferes in no Way with the lath, as it might if it were of equal length with the jaw B.

\Vhat I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. A device for handling wire clips consisting of a pair of pliers with thumb and finger jaws of unequal length, the longer jaw provided on its inner face with a straight chan- 

